Radjabov defeats Morozevich in Monaco

Some of them stayed at the hotel, while a slight majority of seven grandmasters joined the excursion to the Esterel mountains in the vicinity of Saint Rafael. The excursion also included a gourmet lunch at the L'Etoile des Mers restaurant in Theoule sur Mer. Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m., invigorated by a day of relaxation, the players resumed play with Round 5. A lively round it was, that brought back the tension in the tournament. Vladimir Kramnik lost 1,5-0.5 to Vasily Ivanchuk who joined the World Champion in the combined lead together with Levon Aronian. Vishy Anand closed in on the leaders thanks to a 2-0 win against Loek van Wely. He's one full point behind, but there are still 12 games to go!

Annoyed by the time-trouble in many of his games, Paco Vallejo decided to play the opening moves of his blindfold game against Boris Gelfand at a quicker pace. The result was not what he had hoped for as after only 13 moves he blundered a pawn. As is easy to see almost any move other than 13…Be6 would have been better. In the remainder of the game there was little Vallejo could do to fight back and disgusted by his poor play he gave away a full rook on move 29. 'Just to resign,' he explained after the game.

Vallejo hit back in the rapid game, but he wasn't too proud of his achievement. The position he got out of the opening was fine, but then a prolonged phase began that was riddled with mutual mistakes. The main culprit was their lack of time, as for the greater part of the game both players were down to about 30 seconds and the 'breathing space' they created with the 20 seconds increments didn't bring much relief. Black had good compensation for the exchange he was down, but once White managed to pick up the advanced black a-pawn the endgame was lost for Gelfand.

Magnus Carlsen and Peter Leko went through some wild adventures before their blindfold game as by miracle ended in a draw. In the opening the Norwegian grandmaster couldn't resist the temptation to launch a fierce offensive, but once he'd sent his forces forward he had second thoughts. With 21.Bxb6 he tried to bail out assuming that he was forcing a draw. But he didn't as Black didn't go 23…Kc8 as he had expected, but 23…Ka8!. In fact, as Leko pointed out later, White's attack would have been decisive if he hadn't played 15.cxd6, but 15.cxb6! and the black king is with its back against the wall. After 23…Ka8! Carlsen was in trouble, but fortunately for him Leko had little time to find the right path in a position that required great precision. One improvement was 28…g3 (instead of 23…Rb2) when Black has very good chances to win. Another move that most likely would have changed the outcome of the game was 34…Qxc3 when after 35.Qe4 Qa5 White's prospects are grim.

The rapid game was another draw and again sparks were flying! This time Carlsen got a raging attack with black after provocative opening play by Leko. The Hungarian grandmaster could have limited the damage with 15.Ke2 exd5 16.Qg3 and the position should be about equal. After 15.Nb6+ as he played, Carlsen could have finished the job with 16…Qg4+ and White will lose his queen after 17.Kf2 Qh4+ 18.Ke2 Bg4+ 19.Kd2 Bb4+. In the game Black also gave a lot of checks, but they only led to a repetition of moves.

In the blindfold game between Peter Svidler and Levon Aronian both players had their chances, but after 66 moves the result was a draw. First Svidler was better and afterwards he opined that he would have been much better to winning if he'd played 40.Rb7+ (instead of 40.f3) first and only then 41.f3. Now Aronian got a pleasant game, but he too didn't use his opportunities fully and in the final part of the game it was Black again who had to defend.

The rapid game also ended in a draw, but Svidler could barely believe that he had not been punished for the mistakes he made. The first inexplicable error was the 'automatic' recapture 16…bxa6, where obviously he should have interpolated 16…cxb2. A healthy pawn down he was lost, but Aronian wasn't playing too accurately either and before he knew it Svidler was alive again. But not for long. Having reached a position where practically nothing could happen to him, he created a weakness out of free will with 41…g5?. Now he had to get back to work again and mainly thanks to Aronian's shortage of time he saved the draw.

Alexander Morozevich sprung a slight surprise on Teimour Radjabov when he opened their blindfold game with 1.Nc3. The unusual first move didn't produce any miracles and Black equalized easily. Black even got the upper hand when after 30…Bd6 White had to give up his g-pawn, because 31.g4 Bh2 would lead to disaster. With one pawn up Radjabov seemed to have good winning chances, but suddenly he forced a draw with a repetition of moves. In the hospitality lounge several grandmasters wondered why he didn't play on with 38…Rc8. Most probably he felt that he had too little time left for a serious winning attempt.

The rapid game was further testimony to the fact that both of them are not in their best of forms in Monaco. Morozevich confronted Radjabov with his own pet defence, the King's Indian, and reached a decent position. Nevertheless White got a winning position when Black went 42…Qxh5? instead of 42…Qf1 which would have forced a draw. But Radjabov wasn't too precise either and he needed quite a few more chances before he finally decided the issue in his favour.

'Mm, maybe I should have played 18…g6 instead of 18…Qc7', Loek van Wely said producing the understatement of the day after his terrible loss to Vishy Anand in the blindfold game. The difference between the two moves was considerable, as the Indian grandmaster was allowed to unleash a blistering attack with 19.g6!. For a moment Van Wely had forgotten that he could not take the pawn on f7 one move later as the rook on a8 would be hanging. Anand finished the game in great style, sacrificing a rook and offering his queen. And in the end he nevertheless took the rook on a8.

In an 'inspired' moment during the rapid game Van Wely thought up a piece sacrifice that would have been brilliant had it been correct. With 24.Qxe4 dxe4 25.Ng5 he could have steered for a satisfactory position, but spotting an overwhelming attack he flashed out 24.Qh5. The only problem was that he had missed that after 27…d4 the knight on c6 was defended by the queen on f3. Van Wely plodded on and even gave Anand a fright with 37.Re5, which looked pretty annoying until he found 39…Nd3. The rest was not too complicated and after 53 moves Anand cashed his second win of the day.

The blindfold game between Vasily Ivanchuk and Vladimir Kramnik was a short affair. Blitzing out his moves the Ukrainian grandmaster (who at home was elected Ukrainian Player of the Year 2006 yesterday) seemed to be ultra-motivated  to pose the World Champion problems, but after 21 moves he suddenly proposed a draw. Kramnik thought for a moment and then accepted. 'I was seven minutes behind on the clock, which in this kind of chess is about half a point. If I had been equal in time I would have played on.' In the final position Black is marginally better, but it would not be easy to come up with a plan to achieve anything tangible.

In the rapid game Kramnik played an insipid opening that soon left him without any hopes of an advantage. Without any real effort Ivanchuk took over the initiative and reached a winning position after Kramnik committed a blunder with 22.Bf1 (he might have fought on with 22.Bf3) which cost him a piece. Ivanchuk rolled up his sleeves (those of his jacket, not those of his shirt!) and with a determined look he made sure that the point was his.

Results round 4:

Blindfold: Gelfand-Vallejo 1-0, Carlsen-Leko 1/2-1/2, Svidler-Aronian 1/2-1/2, Morozevich-Radjabov 1/2-1/2, Anand-Van Wely 1-0, Ivanchuk-Kramnik 1/2-1/2.

Rapid: Vallejo-Gelfand 1-0, Leko-Carlsen 1/2-1/2, Aronian-Svidler 1/2-1/2,
Radjabov-Morozevich 1-0, Van Wely-Anand 0-1, Kramnik-Ivanchuk 0-1.

Standings after the fourth round: 1-3. Kramnik, Aronian, Ivanchuk 7.0 each; 4-5. Svidler, Anand 6.0 each; 6-7. Gelfand, Leko 5.0 each; 8. Morozevich 4.5; 9. Carlsen 4.0; 10. Radjabov 3.5; 11. Vallejo 3.0; 12. Van Wely 2.0.

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